How to Expand Noti­fi­ca­tions on MIUI Red­mi Devices

12 Mar 2018

Recently, Xiaomi conducted a poll on Twitter where they asked the users whether they like the MIUI skin or Android One. Interestingly, Android One emerged as the winner. However, Xiaomi didn’t expect that to happen and they had to delete their tweet.

If you have used a stock Android device or even a Samsung or OnePlus phone, you'd be familiar with what I'm saying. For the unaware, MIUI doesn’t support single swipe on the notifications to expand them. You have to use two fingers to swipe-to-expand notifications. This is inconvenient and the issue doesn’t end here.

While the swipe-to-expand gesture using two fingers works for third-party apps such as Microsoft SMS Organizer, Truecaller, WhatsApp etc., it somehow doesn’t work for all the apps, including the stock SMS app.

So, if you're also annoyed by the MIUI notification panel and want to expand notifications on your Redmi devices such as Redmi Note 4, Note 5, Redmi 4 etc., we are here to help you.

Expand Notifications With One Finger

To solve the above problem, you need to download a third-party app that goes by the name Material Notification Shade. It's available for free on the Play Store with in-app purchases for extra benefits.

This app replaces the MIUI notification panel with the stock Android panel. It also gives you the option to choose between Nougat and Oreo layouts. Thanks to this app, you can now access all the stock Android notification features on your Redmi devices.

Lock the App

If you find the old MIUI notification panel coming back again and again, it’s due to the fact that MIUI is killing the Material Notification Shade app. To avoid this, you will have to lock this app in memory. Thankfully, MIUI makes it easy to lock apps in memory.

To lock the Material Notification Shade app, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open the Material Notification Shade app and tap the Home button.

Step 2: Tap the Recent apps button on your phone. Locate the Material Notification Shade app and drag it downwards. You will see a small Lock icon appear on top of the app.

Now, even if you clear the RAM, the app will still stay in memory and you can use the notification panel every time. To unlock an app, drag the locked app downwards again. However, keep in mind that you will have to reopen the app whenever you restart your phone.

Access the Notification Panel From Anywhere

If you have a habit of swiping anywhere on the screen to bring down the notification shade, you are in trouble. Why, you ask? Well, because the Material Notification Shade app doesn’t work everywhere. It only works if you swipe from the top of the screen.

However, there is a workaround to make this work. For that, you will have to download Nova Launcher Prime on your Redmi device. After installing the app and setting it as your default launcher, you have to make the following changes in the Nova settings.

Step 1: Open Nova Launcher settings and tap Gestures & inputs.

Step 2: Tap on Swipe down followed by Shortcuts tab. Scroll down and select the Material Shade notification option.

Now, you can use the stock Android notification panel from anywhere. Enjoy!

Customize the Notification Panel

The Material Notification Shade app lets you customize the layout of the notification panel. You can choose the panel theme (Nougat, Oreo) and the notification theme (Light, Dark, Colored, and System default).

Moreover, you can customize individual colors for background, foreground, notification background etc. If you want more, the app also lets you choose a background image for the panel.

One cool thing that I like about the app is the Auto expand notifications feature. With this feature, you don’t need to swipe the notification to expand it, the notifications will be expanded automatically.

Any Thoughts?

Do let us know your thoughts about the above methods. If you know any other similar app, kindly let us know in comments below.

Last updated on 4 Nov, 2019
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Written By

Mehvish is a computer engineer by profession. Her love for Android made her develop the first app for Kashmir. Known as Dial Kashmir, she won the prestigious Nari Shakti award from the President of India for the same. She has been writing about technology for 3+ years and also has her own Wikipedia page.